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PHONES BLOWING UP

Tom Carroll's Strategy of the Week:

Samsung had a problem that no company wants to have. Samsung Note 7 phones were blowing up. Well, 35 phones blew up worldwide and caused phone fires. The U.S. and EU ordered passengers not to use their phones in flight and the Product Safety Commission told people to turn off their phones and not use them. Clearly, this was a crisis for Samsung. So Samsung did what we would have recommended - it stopped sales and ordered a worldwide recall of the phones. It also offered a $25 gift card as a "gesture of appreciation." Companies often see crisis situations as terrible for PR, but Samsung saw it as an opportunity to "put safety first." Now, instead of a PR nightmare, Samsung looks like a good company. It will emerge stronger than before it happened. That's how you handle a crisis.